Fight Song

Chapter 10

The video is basically what I imagine Joe and Dianne's duet would look like. Obviously I can't just put down what's in my head so I tried to make it with clips from different dances so hopefully you get the gist of it! It's pretty bad but I tried haha x

Joe's PoV
Waking up the next morning was odd. I was excited because I got to dance with Dianne again and I got to compete on the Internationals stage. But I was also sad because after we performed today, Dianne and I would go from allies to rivals again, and I didn't wanna let go of what we'd created.

It was 10am, and weren't on stage until 1pm, but Dianne wanted to get some extra rehearsals in and watch the competition, which I wasn't complaining about.

"Hey," I said, walking into the rehearsal room.

"Hey," Dianne smiled. "So we're against Poland and Denmark. Basically the easiest win ever."

Poland never got past the second round. Ever. No matter what team came. Denmark was better, but they'd never won. I kind of wished we'd been put against more of a challenge, but I suppose at least we weren't against Briar and Caspar. Poor France and Spain had been given them.

"Touch wood," I laughed, and she got up and touched the ballet bar.

"Done," she smiled.

We rehearsed the dance twice more before I decided to stop her. "Dianne, we've rehearsed this countless times. We're good."

She paused and suddenly looked a bit sad. She nodded, she sat down on the floor quietly.

"Wait, I didn't mean to upset you," I said, sitting down next to her.

"No, it's not you," Dianne shook her head. "It's just this dance, it's the first time I've had fun with dance in years and I really don't want to let that go."

"You're not letting it go," I said, rubbing her back. "You're just saying see you later. This is fun, then you've got a few days of hardcore competition, but then you can dance for fun again. Dance isn't going anywhere."

"But you are," she whispered to my surprise.

"Me?" I looked at her in surprise. "What do I have to do with anything?"

"You know what," Dianne looked at me miserably, and she was right. I knew exactly what she meant.

I bit my lip. "I'm gonna miss you a lot too. But...it's not like we'll never see each other again... We've got next year..."

"Next year, when I'll just be competition again," Dianne whispered. "This is the last time I get dance and you. After the competition, you're going back to England."

I didn't know what to say. She was right, this would be the last time...

"Well, if this is the last time we get to dance together, let's just make it the best dance ever," I said, wiping away her tears and pulling her into a hug. I felt her crying into my shoulder, and my heart broke.

"Okay," she whispered.

———

Dianne had calmed down, and we'd pushed all our feelings behind us, going into the auditorium to see the next few dances, deciding we would go and get ready at 12:15. I won't lie, they were good. But Briar and Caspar's was spectacular. They used their silks throughout the whole dance, not getting them caught up or anything. They used them to represent so many different things, the entrapment of being in a place you don't know, being tied together with another person and needing each other to move forward. It was wonderful. Safe to say Spain and France were eliminated.

"We should go get ready," Dianne prodded me, and I nodded, getting up out of my seat.

We headed to our separate changing rooms, and put on our costumes. We were dressed simply. I had a black unitard, and Dianne in a white lycra dress. We'd tried to make it look like a chess board, as I was the black king and Dianne the white queen. We were rivals, but still part of the same chess set. I was trying to get her to see we were in the same game, whereas Dianne could only see me as an opponent, a rival. It kind of reflected our actual personalities, particularly before the duet.

I met Dianne in the corridor that lead to the wings, but as we were walking towards the side of the stage, we were stopped by Briar and Caspar.

"We wanted to wish you guys good luck," Caspar beamed.

"Not like you're gonna need it though," Briar laughed. "I'll confess, I saw you rehearsing this morning. Your dance is insane."

"Thanks," Dianne smiled, and Briar returned her smile. I hoped they could be friends again soon. They both deserved that.

We walked to the stage, and stood watching the two acts before us dance. First was New Zealand and Brazil, second was Portugal and Estonia. Both were amazing, but it was ultimately New Zealand and Brazil that won their round.

"Next to the stage, Britain and Australia," the announcement rang through the theatre. I took a deep breath and nodded at Dianne as we took our places on the stage. This was it.

Dianne's PoV
This was it. Our last dance. My last fun moment before I had to go back to competitive Dianne again. I sat on my hoop as it was lifted a bit higher into the air, getting ready for the music to start. And then it did, and we'd never danced it this well.

This was what I loved. The sound of the audience cheering when we did our fouettés in time, when we did a cool lift, and the exhilarating feeling of performing on a stage. And to perform with Joe, it just felt so right.

The song came to an end, and as I looked down at Joe I wondered how I could have danced without him for so long. Dancing had never felt so right, and yet now it was over.

The theatre erupted into thunderous applause and cheers. I'd never had an applause this big. I grinned and hugged Joe as we took a bow.

"Well done," he said to me.

"You too," I grinned back.

"High five!" Joe grinned at me when we'd got into the wings. I high fived him, but then I hugged him, and I didn't let go. A huge surge of emotion suddenly overwhelmed me. That was the last time we'd ever dance that dance.

"Hey, are you okay?" Joe asked, concerned. He hugged me to his chest, clearly thinking something was wrong. I pulled away and nodded.

"Yeah," I sniffed. "I'm just gonna miss this a lot. Rivals now, right?"

It was the wrong thing to have said. His face darkened and he just nodded, turning to watch our competitors and ignoring me. I sighed, back to square one I suppose.

The other team finished, and we were crowned the winners. Unsurprisingly. The Egyptian girl slipped in her free cartwheel and fell. We didn't even need a good routine to beat that.

"Rivals now," Joe said, looking at me as though I was a stranger. "May the best team win."

With that, he turned away, then went to go join Briar and Caspar. He didn't even look back once.

I'll update when I can! Thank you for 1k reads! :)